Bury St Edmunds Chess Club

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Saturday, 2 September 2017

In a change from recent years, we ran our Club Championship over the summer break rather than our usual programme of events. The only unbeaten player over the five round event was up-and-coming junior Jaden Jermy, who finished a full point clear of his nearest challenger.

Over the coming weeks I hope to add some of the games to the club website here.

The tournament began before the summer grades were published, so seeding was based on older grades from January 2017. As a result, Jaden was paired against top seed Steve Ruthen in the first round. Jaden surprised Steve with the quality of his play, and after winning a piece in a complex middle-game, quickly went on to win with some very elegant moves.

In the second round, he comfortably beat yours truly (Steve Lovell), and then in the third he took down Bob Jones. These games contained few fireworks. Jaden played calmly, reaching materially equal endgames ... but he judged the transition into those endgames better than his opponents and with this king and pawns better placed went on to win each with relative ease. I was impressed by Jaden's calm and mature approach and his ability to determine which exchanges would work in his favour.

After a taking a bye in round four, Jaden was paired against Jon Collins in the fifth and final round. On paper it was still possible for any of four players to win the event, and I'd had to devise a system of tie-breaks to cater for the possibility of a three-way tie. But Jaden made all of that unnecessary, extracting himself like a magician from the opening difficulties which Jon appeared to have created for him and then going on to win.

A close look at the cross-table shows that Jaden had comfortably the most difficult draw of anyone in the event. He played and beat the top four seeds, all graded over 140 ECF.

Saturday, 29 July 2017

The British Chess Championship are underway, which is the customary time for the ECF to publish the summer grades. You can find them on the ECF Grading Website. I've added those to our membership page too. If I've missed you, please let me know (either by email or comments here).

Entry
The event is open to all club members holding ECF membership. Pairings for round 1 will be finalised "on the day" allowing you to simply turn up to enter. If you want to enter but would like to take a bye in the first round, please notify the organiser, Steve Lovell.

Byes
Entrants may nominate one round as a half-point-bye, but must do so before the completion of previous rounds. A second bye will be permitted, but this will be a zero-point bye. Failure to play in three rounds will result in automatic withdrawal from the competition.

Pairings and Flexible Dates of Play
Pairings for rounds 2 to 5 will be made available in advance as soon as the organiser can manage. Games may be played either at the club on the nominated date in the schedule or ahead of that date at the players' own convenience.

Notification of Results
Both players in any game must notify the result to the organiser, Steve Lovell.

Tie-Breaks
(1) Direct encounter
(2) Rapid or Blitz Playoff, playing once with each colour
(3) Step (2) will be repeated until a winner is determined

The first tie break is the result between the players involved in the
tie. If this is not decisive or not all the players involved in the tie have
played each other, then those involved will play an all-play-all mini-tournament
to decide the winner, with each pairing occurring twice to ensure a fair colour
distribution. Those involved in the tie-break will decide between time controls
of 25m+10s or 3m+2s (because these are easily set on a DGT 2010). If agreement
cannot be reached, the time control will be decided by the toss of a coin. These
games will take place at the earliest opportunity which is convenient for the
players (and not necessarily all in one evening).

Sunday, 5 February 2017

I guess most of you will know Jaden Jermy. He’s one of our most promising youngsters and has a new ECF grade of 123. He attends the Bury
Knights Junior Club, as well as being a full and active member of the adult Bury St Edmunds club.

Jaden “lives and breathes chess” and has ambitions to have a
career as a top GM. His progress in recent months has been remarkable; he
is unbeaten in the leagues since early November.

As you may have read or seen elsewhere (local papers/TV) he
was invited last weekend to the English Closed Championships, which is
effectively a selection process for the England Squad. Seeded 13 out of
16 competitors, he finished unbeaten in 4th place. He has now
been selected to play for England!

Jaden lives in Thetford with his single Mum Michelle, who
realises that the costs involved with travel, accommodation, etc will be
prohibitive. She has set up a crowdfunding page for Jaden. The aim
is to secure £5,000 of sponsorship to enable Jaden to obtain high-level
coaching (probably with Mike Harris) and to cover their travel costs.

If you feel able to support Jaden, please go to his sponsorship
page. Every small amount donated will help him achieve his goal.

Tuesday, 30 August 2016

We’re together again at chess club this Thursday (1st
September), which is now back to meeting weekly.

If you’ve been taking a break from chess over the summer
this is a perfect chance to blow away the cobwebs with a few friendly games. You’ll
also get to see the team sheets and fixture lists, and perhaps meet and talk with
your captain or team mates.